Here's a game Warren's Boothe is sure to remember
Ah, high school.
Seems like a lifetime ago for Sarah Boothe, who, by the way, is just three years removed from high school.
When I asked Boothe on Thursday afternoon to recall the biggest win she was a part of in high school, the former Warren basketball star and winner of Illinois' prestigious Ms. Basketball award in 2008 began with a long “Ummmmmm.”
“I'm so bad at this,” Boothe said with a laugh. “I have such a bad memory when it comes to remembering certain games. I can barely remember the last game I played in. It's like you play the game and then you forget about it because you're moving on to the next game.”
But alas, Boothe's memory eventually kicked in.
She started telling me about a win Warren got over Fenwick during her senior year.
“I think Fenwick was ranked No. 1 in the state at the time and we were playing them at the Sears Centre around Martin Luther King Day,” Boothe said. “No one expected us to win, but we played like such a team that day. Everyone was on the exact same page, everyone had the same mindset.
“It was kind of like the game we just played against Connecticut.”
Yes, Connecticut.
Now, there is a game Boothe is likely never to forget, no matter how bad her memory is now, or years from now, when she really is long removed from her playing days.Boothe is a redshirt sophomore center at Stanford.You may have heard about what the Stanford women's basketball team has been up to lately.Last week, on the night before New Year's Eve, the Cardinal staged what will go down as one of the biggest victories of not only 2010, but of all time by beating Connecticut in Palo Alto.The Huskies were ranked No. 1 in the country at the time. Bigger yet, they were in the midst of the longest college basketball winning streak of all time. For men or women.#8220;It's definitely the kind of win I'll want to tell my kids about someday,#8221; Boothe said. #8220;I mean, it'll be in the history books.#8221;Earlier in December, Connecticut re-wrote history when it tied and then beat the streak of 88 consecutive wins set by the powerhouse UCLA men's teams of the early 1970s.The Huskies were looking to extend their streak to 91 against Stanford.They were stopped at 90.In front of a packed house and a national television audience, Stanford posted a dramatic 71-59 victory to make history, and preserve a streak of their own.Busting Connecticut's streak gave the Cardinal 52 wins in a row at Maples Pavilion.The 6-foot-5 Boothe, who plays valuable minutes off the bench for Stanford, hit the only shot she attempted, a little baby hook in the lane.#8220;It was the most incredible atmosphere. I mean, electrifying. I don't think we've ever played in (an NCAA) tournament game with an atmosphere like that,#8221; said Boothe, who has experienced some fairly important postseason games during her young career. Stanford has gotten to the Final Four in each of Boothe's three years in Palo Alto.#8220;The whole crowd was on its feet for so much of the game,#8221; Boothe continued. #8220;It was just such an emotional game. Everyone in the building was so into it.#8221;Even Condoleezza Rice was in the house.The former Secretary of State is now a professor at Stanford's graduate school of business and was cheering hard for the Cardinal.After savoring the initial moments of victory with the crowd, Boothe and her teammates left the floor to celebrate together in the locker room. The cheers hadn't stopped by the time they returned for a curtain call a few minutes later.#8220;We knew we couldn't celebrate for too long because we had practice the next day to get ready for a big game against Cal,#8221; Boothe said. #8220;But for that moment, we were really living in the moment.#8221;And breathing in the moment.Boothe and her teammates barely found time to exhale down the stretch.#8220;The last six minutes were the worst,#8221; Boothe said. #8220;Even though we were up, it was like, #8216;Can this just be over?' When you're playing a team like Connecticut, you know that it's possible for them to come back at any time.#8221;The key word there is possible.Boothe said that she and her teammates were convinced long before tip-off that they could and would beat Connecticut. #8220;We were so confident going into the game. We know what an amazing team Connecticut is, and we knew how amazing that streak was. But we believed, all of us down to the core, that we would win,#8221; Boothe said. #8220;I really believe that was a big part of the way we played.#8221;The Cardinal also played with an intense hunger. After all, it was Connecticut that denied Stanford a national title in last year's NCAA championship game.#8220;I think we were also trying to prove something,#8221; Boothe said. #8220;We wanted to come out and show that we can beat Connecticut.#8221;Interestingly, the last team to beat Connecticut before the start of its 90-game streak was Stanford, way back at the 2008 Final Four in a national semifinal game.The funny thing about the streak of 88 straight wins by the UCLA men's basketball team was that it was also book-ended by the same team, Notre Dame.UCLA lost a game to Notre Dame in 1971 and didn't lose another game until Notre Dame snapped its streak in 1974.#8220;A lot of people have talked about Notre Dame beating UCLA on both ends of their streak,#8221; Boothe said. #8220;The next time there's a streak and people talk about Connecticut, maybe they'll be talking about us like that.#8221;That should help to keep Boothe's memory sharp.pbabcock@dailyherald.com